Appendix H. Configuring TV-Out

NVIDIA GPU-based video cards with a TV-Out (S-video) connector
can use a television as another display device, just like a CRT or
digital flat panel. The TV can be used by itself, or (on
appropriate video cards) in conjunction with another display device
in a TwinView configuration. If a TV is the only display device
connected to your video card, it will be used as the primary
display when you boot your system (i.e. the console will come up on
the TV just as if it were a CRT). To use your TV with X, there are
a few parameters that you should pay special attention to in your X
config file:

The VertRefresh and HorizSync values in your monitor section;
please make sure these are appropriate for your television. Values
are generally:

HorizSync 30-50
VertRefresh 60

The Modes in your screen section; the valid modes for your TV
encoder will be reported in a verbose X log file (generated with
`startx -- -logverbose 5`) when X is run on a TV. Some modes may be
limited to certain TV Standards; if that is the case, it will be
noted in the X log file. Generally, at least 800x600 and 640x480
are supported.

The "TVStandard" option should be added to your screen section;
valid values are:

used in Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti,
Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan, United
States of America, and Venezuela

"HD480i"

480 line interlaced

"HD480p"

480 line progressive

"HD720p"

720 line progressive

"HD1080i"

1080 line interlaced

"HD1080p"

1080 line progressive

"HD576i"

576 line interlace

"HD576p"

576 line progressive

The line in your X config file should be something like:

Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"

If you do not specify a TVStandard, or you specify an invalid
value, the default "NTSC-M" will be used. Note: if your country is
not in the above list, select the country closest to your
location.

The "ConnectedMonitor" option can be used to tell X to use the
TV for display. This should only be needed if your TV is not
detected by the video card, or you use a CRT (or digital flat
panel) as your boot display, but want to redirect X to use the TV.
The line in your config file should be:

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"

The "TVOutFormat" option can be used to force S-video or
composite output. Without this option the driver autodetects the
output format. Unfortunately, it does not always do this correctly.
The output format can be forced with the options:

Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"

or

Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"

The "TVOverScan" option can be used to enable Overscan where
supported. Valid values are decimal values in the range 1.0 (which
means overscan as much as possible: make the image as large as
possible) and 0.0 (which means disable overscanning: make the image
as small as possible). Overscanning is disabled (0.0) by
default.

Overscan is currently only available on GeForce4 or newer GPUs
with either NVIDIA or Conexant TV encoders.

The NVIDIA X driver may not restore the console correctly with
XFree86 versions older than 4.3 when the console is a TV. This is
due to binary incompatibilities between XFree86 int10 modules. If
you use a TV as your console it is recommended that you upgrade to
XFree86 4.3 or later.